sweet factory sessions Volumes 1-3, Bark! (Scatter Archive, Bandcamp)
from tenderness, a revolution, George Garford / John Bisset (2:13 music, Bandcamp)
The trio Bark! began life in Manchester, back in the 1980s. Over the next ten years it underwent various transformations, the common factor always being the percussionist, Phillip Marks. Guitarist Rex Casswell joined in 1989, moving the band away from its free jazz origins into a sound-world more akin to SME and AMM. Ten years later, a chance encounter at a gig with Paul Obermayer led to him joining the band with almost immediate effect. Marks has said how he and Casswell ‘had been the constant through several changes of line-up and now for the first time in Paul we had someone who was able to fully participate as an equal in the velocity, rhythm and micro-detail of the music.’
The three albums being released here by Scatter Archive were all recorded in July 2023 at The Sweet Factory in Lincolnshire (see links, below). It was the first time Bark! had played together since before the pandemic. They recorded twenty-five sessions, seventeen of which were selected for release.
All three members have other irons in the fire: Obermayer is a member of the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and Casswell, who is based in Denmark, works there in collaboration with choreographer Lene Boel. Marks has long-standing partnerships with other musicians and played for many years in the Alan Tomlinson Trio. However, when they come together as Bark! the musical result is quite unique. They radiate an uncannily strong sense of common purpose. Obermayer’s electronics can blend so seamlessly with Casswell’s guitar that it’s sometimes difficult to separate their contributions. Marks’ percussion enriches the mix while driving the music forward, though never undermining the subtleties that characterise the trio’s sound.
Everyone listening to these albums will discover their own favourite tracks. On first listen, I was quite taken with the enchanting world of Take 20. It would be wrong to make too much of this, though. There are no ‘duds’ here and on subsequent listens I’ve been drawn into other tracks: it’s the kind of music that offers something new each time you listen to it. One of the great things about improvised and experimental music is that, through making it and listening to it, one can discover new ways of being affected by sound. Take 11, for example will, I’m sure, appeal to anyone interested in autonomous sensory meridian response, or ASMR. (For those unfamiliar with the term, ASMR is, as Wikipedia puts it, ‘ a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synaesthesia and may overlap with frisson’). And listening to Take 18, while making myself a coffee, I was struck by how permeable the music is. Sit in a concert hall listening to a string quartet, you’ll find yourself scowled at from all sides (or worse) if you start crinkling a boiled sweet wrapper. Crinkle the same wrapper (or like me, put down a spoon and switch on the kettle) during a Bark! track and you’ll find to your delight that you’ve inadvertently joined in. What better place for Bark! to make music than a sweet factory?
At time of writing, the third volume is yet to be released. I look forward to it.
The notes that go with George Garford and John Bisset’s new album, from tenderness, a revolution, are disarmingly personal. And why not. It’s a reminder that the roots of the roots of much contemporary improvised music are at least partly in the blues and that people over time make music for much the same reasons.
The end result is very different from the world of Bark!: this is music that is still, despite a significant noise-element, by and large, put together from pitched notes. Sax-player Garford, who runs a jazz residency series in Stoke Newington, describes himself as working in the ‘intersecting contemporary jazz, new music and free improvisation scene’. Bisset plays lap steel guitar and, listening to his work, I ‘d say he could be described in much the same way. His previous projects include collaborations with harpist Rhodri Davies and hurdy-gurdy player Jem Finer.
In the first track, Garford’s sax-lines unfold over a gamelan-like layer of sound created on Bisset’s (here, presumably prepared) lap steel. The lyricism of the second track, stepping stones, gives way to the noisier, raucous world of the title track. The final track takes us back to a more slow-moving world. The title, the boy from alsoa 12, is – for those who don’t know – a reference to Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy manga series. In it, the boy from Alsoa 12 warns Astro Boy of a coming invasion by robots from his own planet, which no longer exists. To cut a long story short, with Astro Boy’s help, he makes Earth his home and reveals himself to be a flower in disguise. To go back to George Garford’s notes, one presumes this reflects his observation that making the album left both musicians feeling ‘grounded and renewed’.
Self-therapy and healing can be an important reason for making – or listening to – music. It can affect the way you think and feel as effectively as a psychotropic drug. However, the real test of any music performed for an audience has not only to be the effect it has on the musicians who make it but also the effect it has on those listening. This album succeeds on this level, too. It’s a rewarding listen, with or without the backstory.
.
Dominic Rivron
LINKS
sweet factory sessions Volume 1: https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-factory-sessions-volume-1
sweet factory sessions Volume 2: https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-factory-sessions-volume-2
Bark!: https://bark-trio.com/
The Sweet Factory: http://sweetfactorystudios.co.uk/
from tenderness, a revolution: https://johnbisset.bandcamp.com/album/from-tenderness-a-revolution
.